Link Building: Asking for links versus building links
-
I am currently delving into link building for SEO having started out from a social media marketing side. From that angle, it was always my belief building high quality links came from engaging targeted bloggers and sites in my market and related verticals for product reviews and/or providing expert advise and opinion for posts they are creating.
As I am learning more the "technical" side of SEO, I've read a lot of posters on here talk about asking from links from websites. While I get the concept from a strategic stand point, are links really asking for or is better to continue to pursue the long term investment of pitching to get coverage from well known bloggers and sites?
-
Great discussion. Here is what we do with some success.
We don't do link requests, we do content requests. Thinking what a web master wants, we can write and deliver content for them. A guest blog is an excellent example, but there are many other content suggestions you can make. A half page glowing testimonial about there services will often get published. A tips page related to what they do might be very helpful for them.
Think like the web master, be there friend, an the links and citation will follow.
-
Asking for links is usually a inefficient tactic because the incentives do not outweigh the costs. In Dale Carnegie's classic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People he suggests thinking in terms of what other people want, not what you want. If you provide a strong enough incentive, asking for links can work. For example, the ego hook can be highly effective. If you put bloggers on a list as one of the top bloggers in their industry or interview them, they have a strong incentive to link to you.
-
I like the way you are thinking... there are different approaches to linkbuilding.
I believe that different types of linkbuilding work differently for different types of websites, different types of people and different types of relationshiops.
One of the most important things to consider is the value of content on the site. If you have kickass content it can be easy to get links. Just share it via facebook, twitter, slashdot, reddit, stumble upon and the people who encounter it will pass it along to their friends/followers/ etc and some links will develop as a result. Invest in great content and your linkbuilding efforts will can be easy - but your content needs to be best-on-the-web superior stuff. Most people are unable or unwilling to produce this in quantity. This type of linkbuilding really scales because it takes no effort from you. Other people do it for you.
Once your content declines in value then you enter the "asking for links" and "building links" realms.... they are not "gifts" any more. Now you gotta work for almost every one of them, the links are not as juicy and the very best links are impossible to get. These types of links can be one-way if you have decent but not superior content. You just have to ask enough people and a few of them will link to you - as long as you have something respect able for them to link to - and you have to confine your asking to sites that are willing to link out.
Another category of links is "relationships" such as you are a member of a business group, a civic group, a tenant in a building and the landlord links to you, a donor to a library, a business in a specific town, a graduate from a school or department, or maybe your mom will link to you from her blog. These usually have nothing to do with your content and they will link to you as long as your site is not embarrassing.
Once your content and relationships decline in value to the point that nobody is really excited about you linkbuilding becomes a simple transaction...
There is a "fair trade" economy where I give you an article and you accept that content in exchange for allowing my links to remain in it.
There is a "favor economy" where you trade links, trade blog posts, etc. Nobody cares about your content they just want a link somewhere on your site.
Then comes the "purchase economy" where you pay people to link to your site.
I try to operate at the top of this list. I want to create assets on my site that people will link to because the transactions on the lower part of the list are very time consuming and expensive. The cost to scale is very high.
-
Reading all the information buzzing around on Google and social markers, I would think that fewer bog entries and tweets from better sources or related sources would be better in the long run. One thing Google seems to be doing at the moment is biasing keyword searches to social metrics, if you are logged in and your network is active on the topic. We have been able to move keywords rapidly up in rank by contributing to blogs and doing guest articles in our targeted market.
With the last couple of rollouts by google to reduce rank of low quality sites, relevance of content and links is becoming more important. Rand has a slideshow that illustrates how search engines have evolved.
-
It is worth more effort to go for the long term relationships with respected bloggers and sites. Asking for a backlink from a webmaster is practically dead. I mean it is a numbers game and the more people you straight up ask, the better chance that you will get a few here and there. However, by building up a relationship with a blogger or site you have something meaningful over time that will produce more fruitage. Sometimes by contacting a prominent blog ahead of a release of a good piece of content you can build anticipation and get them to take your piece on by generating more perceived value in their eye, and thus getting you a good link. Hope that helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is anyone using Pinterest for link building?
They have dofollow links and I have read somewhere that every repin will be counted as a new link. Is this true?
Link Building | | BridalHotspot0 -
Link Building for a Newbie!
Hi Guys & Girls. Following my previous question, I seem to really be getting to grips with SEOmoz and all its features which seem fantastic. As mentioned before, I am quite new to this SEO game and learning all the time!! Through all my reading and learning over the last week I have learnt that Link Building is one of the most powerful ways of increasing your SEO game. I'm really trying to get my head around it all. I have come across things like "Link Farming" which seems to be a big no no in terms of Google. Submitting to Link directories etc etc. Now for somebody new, this all comes across quite confusing. Can anybody out there provide me with a really simple but informative way to effectively Link Build? Best practices etc etc! I really want to learn and "up" my game! The website that I am working with is http://www.advanced-incar.co.uk Many thanks, Tim
Link Building | | timborrill0 -
Link Building with Bloggers
I want to know when it comes to link building with relevant bloggers, is there a difference among the following in terms of SEO value? product review product giveaway guest blog Also, what would look natural o Google as how many of such links I can build per month? We are a consumer products, we've had lots of bloggers approach us wanting to do the above link building with us, if they fit the profile, high quality site, relevant to our business, does that mean I can do as many per month as we'd like to?
Link Building | | ypl0 -
Link building for ecommerce site
What are your recommendations for the best link building strategy for a B2C ecommerce site?
Link Building | | DenverKelly0 -
Which link should I use for link building?
I have an article which have high rank on Google. But recent, I use mod rewrite url so this article have new url. old: mywebsite.com/c1/p-1 new: mywebsite.com/c-e/p-1 Now, google is indexing old url. I want to ask when I build linking to my site, which link should I use for link building? I should build linking for new url or old url. Thanks
Link Building | | sonzin13040 -
Link Building Management Tool That Syncs Sweetly With Google Analytics
Hi, I would like a link building management tool that syncs with Google Analytics, so that I can Easily see traffic referrals from link acquired sites Easily see traffic from keywords that were anchored in the link acquisition Browny points for the tool to be a CRM as well. Raven Tools cant do this. Does anyone know of a tool? Or do I keep building custom reports in Google Analytics! Thanks.
Link Building | | DigitalLeaf0 -
Is this link building concept white or black
These guys have a service for bloggers and advertisers - advertisers submit their wares for review and bloggers review providing text links - they also let people know they are getting paid for the review is this another grey link building tactic https://www.reviewme.com/ and what about https://www.text-link-ads.com/r/advertisers
Link Building | | GardenBeet0 -
What's your favorite link building tactic?
What's your favorite 100% white hat link building tactic? Well, maybe you don't want to reveal your favorite...just a good one...
Link Building | | AdamThompson0